Atelier Works refreshes International Psychoanalytical Association branding

The consultancy was appointed to the project without a pitch by the association’s new Executive Director Paul Crake. Ian Chilvers, Atelier Works creative director, had previously worked with Crake in his previous position at the RSA, having worked on the RSA marque.

Chilvers says, ‘Paul Crake has a design background and so he’s trying to quietly bring the IPA into the 21st century – one of the first tasks was to tidy up the marque.’

The logo uses an image of Oedipus and the sphinx, referencing the ‘questioning’ nature of psychoanalysis. Chilvers says, ‘The logo was poorly developed over the years – Oedipus started to look a bit chubby and not such an attractive character and the sphinx had become half-dog and half something else.’

Atelier Works was tasked with making the logo clearer and simpler for its application across business cards and a website, which Chilvers thinks is being designed in-house, likely to launch within the next month.

Nine versions of the marque have been created in total, with various sizes and different positions of the name and acronym. There are translations into Spanish, French and German.

The consultancy is currently working on the identity for the association’s 2013 congress in Prague, which will be shown across the communications materials.